Games I Play

We’ve already seen this trend in video gaming, where co-op games are becoming more popular. I mean, It Takes Two is one of the best games I’ve played in the last few years and one of the reasons for that is that I played it along with my wife.

I learned recently that Scrabble has a co-op version now (called “Together”) and I want to play it. We love Scrabble in our home and it sometimes gets a little bit too competitive.

Ray Adler, vice-president and global head of games at Mattel, said: “Scrabble has truly stood the test of time as one of the most popular board games in history, and we want to ensure the game continues to be inclusive for all players. For anyone who’s ever thought ‘word games aren’t for me’, or felt a little intimidated by the classic game, Scrabble Together mode is an ideal option.”

Adler said the game still allows players to celebrate the “wonder of words” but also “brings people together”.

Brett Smitheram, 2016 world Scrabble champion, said the new game “speaks to a trend in younger people who want to avoid competitive games and sense of losing, instead favouring teamwork and collaboration working towards a fun goal together”.

While I still like competitive games, I found myself more open and drawn to co-op games lately, games where I can take the time to chat with friends and enjoying a slower pace.

Source: The Guardian

I’ve recently got into Mixed Reality gaming, when I bought a Meta Quest 3. Once I did that, I noticed there aren’t any good newsletters for the people that play these kind of games, so I made one! :D

If you want to subscribe, the newsletter’s name is XR Gamer Digest and you can find it here. Where you can find the previous (5 by now) editions.

We publish it every Friday, so hop on!

For Christmas we did jigsaw puzzles in our home.

It’s a nice way to spend time together with my wife and we really enjoy the challenge.

What I didn’t know, though, is that there’s a competitive side of jigsaw puzzle: The World Jigsaw Puzzle Championship.

I’ve been mesmerized by the competition and there’s a nice series of videos on 2023’s edition that happened in Valladolid, Spain. Where the 2024 competition will happen, as well. And I might actually go and watch, since it’s just a few hours of driving from where I live.

I’ve bought a Meta Quest 3 recently for VR and Mr gaming.

The best thing I’ve done was to buy an Elite Strap. It made putting on and removing the headset almost as easy as putting on a cap.

If you have a Quest 3, just go and buy an Elite Strap. It’s about $70 on Amazon (I paid about 90€ on Amazon.de).

Thank me later!

First one, Lake. Seems like a story based walking sim (like Firewatch) and it’s something I might get into, especially if it comes on the iPad at some point:

I was never a FarCry fan, but I’m actually excited about FarCry 6:

Vampire: The Masquerade – Swansong

This seems interesting: 12 minutes.

…I’ll update as they come…

I played Mass Effect a long time after they launched it. I don’t know why, but I didn’t hear about the series until the second title. Which I LOVED. It is, even now, the best SF franchise in gaming, in my opinion.

I have a post (in Romanian) from 2012 when I was impatiently waiting for Mass Effect 3. Which I enjoyed, but nothing compared to the 2nd one.

Well, I’m actually quite happy now because I just started playing Mass Effect Legendary Edition, the remastered version of all 3 games. I’m playing it on the PS5, but it’s also available on the PS4 as well. And on PC and XBox.

I wanted to replay the game for a long time now, but it wasn’t available anymore on the PlayStation consoles (even on PS Now) and once I heard they are remastering it, I said I would wait. And the wait is over!

I’ve put one hour in the game already and it’s almost as amazing feeling as I remember. But I started with the first one, of course. And I still don’t feel the nostalgia hitting me. I thing the beginning of the second one, with The Illusive Man looking at a sun from close range, being voiced by Martin Sheen, will manage to do that.

Buuuuut… it’s gonna take a while. The 3 games are more than 100 hours gameplay in length and I don’t have that kind of time now, unfortunately. So I will play it over the next months, especially since I don’t expect any new games any time soon.

If you’ve never played the games, you should. The graphics is showing its age a little bit, but the story is as good as I remember it being. And you actually play it in 4K and 60fps on the PS5. I think you can actually play it in 120fps on PC. So it’s worth trying it again.

Here’s the trailer:

Image from EA

During the past week I watched a NoClip documentary (6 parts) about the development and launch of Hades, the video game created by Supergiant Games.

I don’t normally play roguelike type games (Spelunky, FTL, Hollow Knight and the likes), but I really got interested in this roguelike game with a story behind it.

And I downloaded the game on Switch (I don’t really play on PC and it was the only console where it was available). It also sounded like it made a lot of sense for the Switch, since this type of games have, potentially, unlimited replayability, so a console like a Switch, that you can play anywhere, makes more sense.

That was at 10am in the morning on Saturday. I stopped playing at 6pm. I forced myself to stop, basically, because it was already 2-3 hours since I was saying: “OK, just one ore time”.

It’a really great experience and, if you didn’t play it and look for something that you can come back again and again, Hades is the game. For the moment it’s available on Steam, Epic and Switch.

Here’s the trailer:

Image from Supergiant games.

P.S.: I’m writing this late at night and I’m gonna play “one more time”. See you in the morning, for sure! :)

I rarely play on PC. I have a Mac, first of all, and most of the PC games on Steam or GOG don’t work on Mac, but I also enjoy playing on PlayStation more, for various reasons.

Since hearing about Disco Elysium, I always wanted to play it. And now, that it is available for PlayStation, I’m just gonna do that. The price (in the US store) is $39.99, with a 10% discount for PS+ users.

It’s a really interesting detective story RPG and it’s worth looking at it, if you enjoy this kind of games (and, apparently, if you enjoyed Planetscape: Torment at some point in your life).

Here’s what Wikipedia says about it:

Disco Elysium is a role-playing video game developed and published by ZA/UM. The game takes place in a large city still recovering from a war decades prior to the game’s start, with players taking the role of an amnesic detective who has been charged with solving a murder mystery. During the investigation, he comes to recall events about his own past as well as current forces trying to affect the city. Inspired by Infinity Engine–era role-playing games, particularly Planescape: Torment, Disco Elysium was written and designed by Karelian-Estonian novelist Robert Kurvitz. It features a distinctive watercolor art style, and music by the band British Sea Power. […]

Disco Elysium is a non-traditional role-playing game featuring no combat. Instead, events are resolved through skill checks and dialog trees via a system of 24 skills that represent different aspects of the protagonist, such as his perception and pain threshold. In addition, a system called the Thought Cabinet represents his other ideologies and personality traits, with players having the ability to freely support or suppress them. The game is based on a tabletop role-playing game setting that Kurvitz had previously created, with him forming ZA/UM in 2016 to work on the game. Disco Elysium was well received by critics, with it being named as a game of the year by several publications along with numerous other awards for its narrative and art. A television series adaptation was announced in 2020.

Image from here